'Teen Beach Movie' was a lot of fun because we were in Puerto Rico on an island - you can't even call it work!
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When I was 16, I discovered this island called cinema and I thought: 'Oh, how wonderful; I'm ready.'
It was just crazy opportunity to see that whole world and the competitions that we had in the film, like Long Beach, it was just crazy and so much fun. I felt like I lived all those moments in the movie.
The experience of seeing a surf movie in the 1970s, as a teenager, and the energy in those theatres, was amazing. It was the only way to see people surfing. These guys would go out and make these surf movies and bring them to four-wall theatres. It was an incredible experience that I'll never forget.
It sounds ideal, a sort of beach childhood. But it wasn't really. I didn't use the beach very much at all.
I really loved working on 'Laguna Beach,' and I'd do it all over again. I'm one of the luckiest kids in the world, but I thought it was going to be a documentary about kids in high school, and they exaggerated all this drama. When it came out, it was this weird thing. People feel that they know you.
I think I need to film something tropical on a beach in a bar.
I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba - Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue.
It was like in Samoa when they'd put up a movie screen on the beach and show movies and the locals would run behind the sheet to see where the people went. It was pretty grim.
Final Destination was the closest thing I've done to a teen movie but it certainly had an edge to it.
I had more fun making Traffic than either of the Ocean's films.